The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has today published guidance and a
template to help practising barristers of more than three years'
standing comply with the new CPD scheme, which starts on 1 January
2017.

The CPD arrangements for those in their first three years of
practice, who are on the New Practitioners Programme, are not
changing save that the CPD activities they complete will no longer
need to be accredited. This is because the BSB accreditation scheme
ceases on 31 December 2016.

The outgoing CPD scheme required established barristers to
undertake a mandatory 12 hours' CPD per year. The new scheme
changes the emphasis from the amount of CPD undertaken to the
relevance of the learning and development to the barrister.

In order to comply with the new scheme, barristers will now be
required to:

REVIEW: prepare a written CPD plan setting out their learning
objectives and the activities they propose to undertake during the
year.

RECORD: keep a written record of the CPD activities undertaken
over the past three years including their reflection on the CPD
they have undertaken, any variation in their plans and an
assessment of their future learning objectives.

REFLECT: reflect on their planned and completed CPD activities
to assess whether they have met their objectives.

REPORT: declare to the Bar Standards Board annually that they
have completed their CPD. This is completed as part of the
authorisation to practise process, when practising certificates are
renewed.

The changes to the Rules in the BSB Handbook which will govern
the new scheme have been approved by the Legal Services Board
(LSB).

The guidance has been developed after a formal consultation
process and after input from barristers around the country who
attended a series of workshops hosted by the BSB about the new
scheme. The template will help barristers to set their objectives,
structure their CPD plans and demonstrate how to record their
reflections.

BSB Director General, Dr Vanessa Davies said: "I was very
pleased to see many barristers eager to understand their new CPD
requirements at our recent workshops around the country. After a
thorough consultation process, which included a pilot scheme during
2015 with 76 barristers, we are looking forward to the new regime
starting on 1 January. The guidance and template have been designed
to help barristers to comply with the new rules. The new approach
to CPD should give the public confidence that barristers are
committed to developing their knowledge and skills. We believe that
this will help to ensure that clients continue to receive the high
standard of service that they can expect from barristers."

The regulator has been communicating extensively with barristers
over the past few months to raise awareness of the impending
changes to CPD. It is also emailing individual barristers about the
finalised guidance.

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